After winning a national title and competing in back-to-back Final Fours, Rick Pitino needed something to keep Louisville motivated for the 2013-14 season.

It appears he’s found his source of motivation.

As Pitino was awarded Louisvillian of the Year on Friday night by the American Advertising Federation of Louisville, he made some interesting remarks about dynasties as he accepted the award via video. Pitino was scheduled to be elsewhere and couldn’t make the awards ceremony, but a report from Eric Crawford of WDRB has Pitino’s quotes about Louisville’s potential dynasty and how he’s been preparing this team during the offseason.

“It’s been two unbelievable years,” Pitino said. “Back-to-back Final Fours, which is extremely difficult, and in arguably one of the toughest conferences in all of basketball — the Big East — winning two championships, the last of which was won at Madison Square Garden in the last one of its kind to be played there with all these tremendous teams. One more, and you’ve now created a dynasty. Anytime you have three years at the championship level, you’ve created a dynasty. And that’s going to be our goal. . . .

“What I showed my team after the season was the Yankees run. The Packers run. The Patriots run. The Celtics, the Bulls, the Lakers. All these great teams. It takes three years in a row to create some form of a dynasty. If we can go to three Final Fours and put ourselves into a championship hunt, we will have accomplished that. That has to be the carrot out there. But it has to be, again, on a one-day contract. What that did last year was get the most out of our abilities. We know there are teams like Michigan State, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, and Michigan that certainly are every bit as good as our basketball team, if not better. But I like our basketball team. I think they’re under the influence of that one-day contract mentality, they love what they are accomplishing, and they want to go for it. So we’ll strive to meet our goals like everybody else. We know it will be difficult, but I think we’re up for the challenge.”

While Pitino’s definition of a dynasty is open to debate, his tactic of motivating this year’s Cardinals is a sound one. Since many of these guys have already played in multiple Final Fours and won a title, now Pitino is going for the immortality angle to get his guys fired up.

If Louisville can make another run to a Final Four and maybe even win another title, they’ll forever be held in the highest regard among Louisville’s devoted fanbase.